Only Dreaming
by Tsuki-no-oni
Summary: Kag faces a nightmare demon that threatens to destroy all she holds dear. In the real world, it's sleeping Kagome that's in trouble! Can Inuyasha save her in time? In prog.


Only Dreaming

Tsuki no Oni

**Chapter One: Abandon Me**

Sunlight filtered through the leafy canopy, creating a sort of confetti light on the soft forest floor. Shades of green mixed and merged, each leaf present yet indefinable in the scheme of things. Nothing moved, save for the quietly whispering wind through the fragile branches of the trees.

Azure eyes opened to the sight of the leafy roof, as they had innumerable days in recent times. The birds and animals were silent, the tiny clearing seeming somehow sacred in the absence of noise and movement. Thick lashes sheltered sleepy vision from the deluded light of day, shades of green projecting even as far as the pale skin of the waking girl.

Her brows creased and she pushed herself off the ground, looking around the empty campsite. A short distance away from her sleeping bag were the ashes of the tiny cooking fire, long extinguished and cooled past smoking.

It was not the abandoned fire that scared her, but the absolute silence. There was never a morning that she could recall without some humorous bantering, playful teasing, and angry blows. Her companions were nowhere to be found, the absence of the usual morning bustle throwing the scene into the realm of he bizarre. Slowly, she rose to her feet, leaving the sleeping bag crumples on the ground. She knew that her friends would never leave without her, or at least without waking their Shikon-no-Tama detector.

The assured knowledge of this reinforced her sneaking suspicion that things were not as they should have been, and something must have befallen her companions while they slept. For some reason, a monster beyond her imagination had silenced their voices and removed them from her reach, obstreperous morning banter and emotional baggage alike.

Her feet carried her away from the empty clearing, moving on their own as if some unknown force held her limbs aloft with puppet strings. Eyes wide with fear and suspicions, she made no move to stop her slow advance.

Almost in a trance, her terrified blue eyes watched as forest gave way to plains. She knew that the force pulling her was undoubtedly the cause of her friends' fates. The human mind is always sparking with imagination, and in this situation it was all she could do to keep from jumping to conclusions and envisioning her own untimely demise. With all of the signs of life around her removed and broken, what would she have to live for anyway? The power had plunged her into this surreal and nightmarish world, the illusion that everything was as it should be. She knew by instinct that everything her eyes beheld was false, and yet could not distinguish the illusion to dispel it.

Slowly, her feet halted in their arbitrary advance. Her frightened eyes fluttered open again, horrified at what she would behold. The fears she had nursed manifested before her, tearing a silent scream from her lips.

Claws had rent apart her protector, heart torn from his chest and silver hair stained red with his own blood. Amber unseeing eyes stared up at the sky, the milky film of undeniable death robbing their warmth and surly shell. She fell to her knees, eyes brimming with tears.

An arm's distance away, her best friend was also torn apart. Her head rested on the halves of her boomerang, a wound beneath the hair seeping red, sticky blood onto the weapon that had killed so many demons. Why had it been unable to defeat this…_monster_? Her horrified blue eyes snapped away from the girl's blank face to see…_something_…nudging aside the carcasses of her religious companion and the orphan she had cared for. The screams were wasted, pain so intense inside of the girl that she could do nothing but stare as the cause of this tragedy came forth.

Slowly, the creature drew itself up off the ground. Made up of thousands of swirling shades and shadows, for a moment the creature seemed without a form. Suddenly, twin embers opened within the shadows, pinning her in place with piercing red precision. The red struck her as ironic, once the associated color of protection, now the undoubted color of death. Pulling the rest of the creature into perspective, she finally saw what it was doing.

To absorb the power of her silver-haired friend, the shadow-demon was removing his heart to devour it. The girl jumped to her feet, suddenly intent on stopping the beast. With an anguished battle cry, she rushed towards the specter, unshakable fury driving her on.

Darkness engulfed her, the defiled carcass of her friend frozen before her eyes. The courage and sanity of the girl finally snapped, and she let loose a grief-stricken cry.

"INUYASHA!"

Panting from the gut-wrenching fear of the nightmare, Kagome Hiragushi sat up and screamed.

* * *

First crack at a horror fic, and possibly a first crack at some other things as well. Not too sure yet. Hang in with me, it's a chapter shuffler like Club Shikon was. Hopefully…this one will be easier to understand, and not require any explanation from me. I have finals coming up in a week, but after that should have ample time for updating. Book list calls, so don't count on anything.

For some direct updating, check out Tsuki and Akina's blog.


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